Pass the quality audit or get delisted: Flipkart cracks down on inferior products sellers

Even before completion of the takeover of Flipkart by Walmart in a $16 billion deal, things have started changing in the Indian e-commerce major. In an attempt to improve the product quality on the platform, Flipkart will audit the products sold by thousands of sellers.

The e-commerce major has threatened to delist sellers or snatch the ‘Flipkart assured’ badge (Fassured) in case their products fail to pass the audit.

The e-commerce platform aims to limit returns by 10-15 per cent in the one year by putting a control on quality.

The company has formed certain guidelines; gathered data from both sellers and customers to create an outline on which the products will be audited. The audit team from Flipkart will visit various seller locations to help identify possible gaps in the quality of the products they sell on Flipkart.

In case 70 per cent or more samples do not pass the audit, the audit will be considered a failure, the company has informed sellers in an email.

The move is part of its latest initiative ‘Flipkart Utkarsh’, which aims to help sellers improve their business by focusing on improving operations as well as the quality of products being sold.

However, the company has been working on the issue for the past few months and has undertaken a number of steps that have helped it reduce the return of products by 15-20 per cent in the last few quarters.

Amidst this, sellers also have complaints against the website for disregarding and ignoring their problems.

In the past few months, many sellers' association have complained against the e-commerce platform over its predatory pricing. Besides, they have also demanded a probe into the Walmart-Flipkart deal. The traders’ body has claimed that the proposed deal if fructifies, will trigger loss-funding and predatory pricing culture in the Indian e-commerce space.

As the e-commerce platform is free to create rules and impose it on online vendors, the latter is left with no choice but to comply, the online vendors say.

The development was first reported by ET.